Water Filters for Comasagua

PazSalud is committed to improving the short-term and long-term health of every community we serve.  During our General Medical Missions in February our physicians 'prescribe' water filters to families suffering the effects of consuming El Salvador's contaminated water.  With this list of patients, PazSalud works with CIS' community water filter program to raise awareness of the vital link between clean water and public health and to train families on how to use the Sawyer water filter.
Since our patients come from communities surrounding Comasagua this year, in addition to the town of Comasagua itself, we hold training sessions for them in their nearest community center.  The pictures below depict various groups of patients from several communities who were trained on and received water filters.

PazSalud donates 100 water filters and buckets to every community that hosts our medical missions and we help them get into the hands of people who need them the most.

Luis from CIS training people how to use the water filter

Assembling the filter

Felipa - part 1

PazSalud recently met an elderly woman named Felipa who lives on the Salvadoran coast not far from Puerto Libertad.  She was living alone in a dilapidated tin lean-to and had built her furniture out of rocks she collected from the nearby creek.  When the heavy rains fell they poured through the many holes in her roof, soaking her and her meager belongings.

Her visitors chair

My father came to El Salvador in October of 2015 and we visited Felipa to give her a PazSalud quilt.  He was so moved by Felipa's living conditions and her positive, resilient personality that he committed to helping her in whatever way she wanted.  Maira (the local CIS promoter) and I talked to Felipa and she told us that what she needed most was a new roof so we got some materials estimates, drew up a proposal and my parents, Jim and Jan Streff, generously donated the funds needed to help her.

Shortly after, I became engulfed in planning PazSalud's General Medical Mission and didn't have the time needed to focus on Felipa's house.  Meanwhile, life intervened and Felipa was going to be forced to move out of her shack because the property it was on was changing ownership and she was no longer allowed to live there.  Fixing her roof wasn't the problem; she had to find a place to live.  Her daughter, who lives nearby, invited her to live on her property but she was going to need to build a place of her own.  So Maira assembled a team of volunteers comprised of builders, carpenters and general laborers, put together a revised budget, got us a good deal on materials and supplies and on Saturday (April 2) I met everyone at the constructions site and we began to build Felipa new house.

We first had to level the land to create a foundation for her house, build a retaining wall out of rocks we foraged from the dry riverbed close by, clear some overhead mango tree branches that could be hazardous in the rainy season, construct the framework and begin applying the zinc sheeting we'll use for walls and a roof.

Even with 15 volunteers on Saturday and Sunday and working 10 hour days, we weren't able to finish.  I'll go back next Saturday (April 9) to hopefully finish the job.  We still have a lot of work to do but we need to finish before the rainy season begins (typically in mid-May) and help Felipa move in to her new surroundings.

Medical Mission Preparations

One of the things that makes PazSalud unique is that we work closely with community leaders, long before the medical mission ever begins, to pool our collective resources in order to create the best medical brigades possible.  Comasagua - the site for our 2016 General Medical Mission - has some remarkably enthusiastic and motivated leaders happy to partner with PazSalud to bring our services to the most patients we can.

For the past several months I've been working to put together a team of local entities that will help us pull off the massive undertaking that is a PazSalud February mission.  Below I'm meeting with the mayor (center, yellow shirt), the Director of the municipal health clinic (center, plaid shirt), the local CIS health promoter/volunteer coordinator (right, plaid shirt) and a room full of nurses and health care outreach workers.

Water Filters to Tamanique

PazSalud is committed to improving the short-term and long-term health of every community we serve.  During our General Medical Missions in February our physicians 'prescribe' water filters to families suffering the effects of consuming El Salvador's polluted water.  With this list of patients, PazSalud works with CIS' community water filter program to raise awareness of the vital link between clean water and public health and to train families on how to use the Sawyer water filter. 

PazSalud donates 100 water filters to every community that hosts our medical missions and we help them get into the hands of people who need them the most.

The first patient meeting

Luis and Maira from CIS training patient on how to use the PazSalud-donated water filters

Learning to assemble and care for the filter

Tamanique volunteer meeting

An important part of the planning for every PazSalud General Medical Mission is preparing the local volunteers for the 6-day experience of hosting and executing a large-scale medical event for their community.  This generally involves multiple meetings of team-building exercises and training sessions to help them identify their volunteer roles and what their specific tasks will be in addition to an orientation on the overall project.

To begin the process, I recently met with local volunteers to explain who PazSalud is, what we do and what our medical missions typically look like.  I will build on this meeting with our local coordinator and try to meet with the volunteers on a regular basis until the start of the mission.

Talking to the volunteers

An introduction and team-building exercise

Watching the PazSalud video on the 2013 General Medical Mission/2014 Eye Surgery Mission

Blankets for San Pedro

Every year a former PeaceHealth employee and her sisters hand-make and donate quilts to PazSalud to distribute to needy families and individuals from our mission communities.  This year I worked with Yessenia – our local coordinator from CIS who helped us with our General Medical Mission – to identify some folks in San Pedro Perulapán who greatly needed and appreciated this small gesture of friendship and solidarity with the people of El Salvador.  It was a joy to see so many happy, smiling faces at receiving something they will treasure for years to come.

Meeting the women and children of San Pedro Perulapan

Water filter training for San Pedro Perulapán

During PazSalud’s General Mission, our physicians identify patients with water-borne diseases and prescribe water filters for their use at home.  PazSalud purchases filters for these patients as well other locals then, working with CIS, they provide the training and follow-up needed to ensure the water filters are used and maintained correctly.

CIS water filter promoter, Luis, recently met with patients in San Pedro Perulapán to train them in the need for, the assembly of, and proper use of the Sawyer water filter and I attended to represent PazSalud and maintain our connection with the community.  PazSalud is committed to working with our mission sites long after our teams have left and providing low-cost water filters is one of the many ways we honor this commitment.

Luis training patients on water filter assembly, use and maintenance

Assembling the filter

Some of the filter recipients with filters ready to go

Clean water for Estanzuelas Families

One of the cornerstones of PazSalud's work in El Salvador is our commitment to our mission communities well after our two main medical brigades are completed.  We live that commitment in a number of ways: one of the most significant is working with a local NGO to provide water filters to families.

During PazSalud's February General Medical Mission, our medical team identifies patients - especially children - who suffer serious health effects from drinking contaminated water and 'prescribes' them a filter.  We then work with our local mission coordinator to follow-up with these families by training them on the need for, and use of, a water filter.  Simultaneously PazSalud raises funds to purchase the excellent and easy-to-use Sawyer water filters (http://sawyer.com/international/products/sawyer-pointone-filter-with-bucket-adapter-kit-3-ft-hose/) in the U.S.  Our goal is to provide 100 filters to every mission community we work with.

We collaborate with the CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) to provide the training that makes the water filter project work.  Participants are required to come to three sessions, in which they learn why clean water is essential, and how to install, use and clean the Sawyer filters.  A local Water Committee is formed that visits all the families to make sure they are using the filters correctly.

Here are scenes from the training sessions in Estanzuelas, our 2013 Mission site:

This woman is drilling a hole in her bucket (the filter packets come complete with a small hand drill) as preparation for installing the filter.

The completed assembly: the Sawyer system works with two buckets, with water fed by gravity from a higher bucket through the filter and into a lower bucket.  The group photo below shows what the completed system looks like:

¡Fiesta!

Darren writes:

Recently the Center for Interchange and Solidarity (CIS - Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) invited me to their Christmas party and gift exchange where we shared great food, fun conversation and holiday cheer.  CIS has been a trusted and valued partner to PazSalud for many years and they continue to provide us with the indispensable local volunteer networks we rely on to bring medical missions to El Salvador.  In addition to working with us, the CIS is a multi-faceted organization, with many programs supporting education, organizing, and social justice.

Darren writes:

Last week I was honored to represent PazSalud at an award ceremony jointly sponsored by PAR (Project of Reciprocal Support), the University of Dr. Jose Matias Delgado and CIS (Center for Interchange and Solidarity).  The ceremony was held in honor of needy rural students who, because of the partnership established by CIS, were able to attend and graduate from an excellent local design school and learn the art of indigo dyeing in a formal, professional setting.  With their new skills, the CIS scholarship students will create a sustainable commercial livelihood for themselves and their families.


And here are some samples of their craft: